


Kin

by scribblemyname



Category: Escape to Witch Mountain - Alexander Key
Genre: Backstory, Found Family, Gen, Growing Up, adopted family
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-05
Updated: 2015-09-05
Packaged: 2018-04-16 23:11:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,203
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4643559
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/scribblemyname/pseuds/scribblemyname
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Nellie Malone wasn't sure at first what to make of the tiny, sharp-featured orphans, but they were sweet, good children, and in the end, they were hers.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Kin

**Author's Note:**

  * For [HYPERFocused](https://archiveofourown.org/users/HYPERFocused/gifts).



> Many thanks to vikingprincess for an awesome beta!

Nellie Malone wasn't sure at first what to make of the tiny, sharp-featured orphans. They didn't speak English, and soon she learned the girl didn't speak at all. But they were sweet, good children. The little girl would putter around after Nellie, mouth shaping words as though she were babbling, and try to help in her toddler way.

Their faces weren't so pale as those living down South Water Street. Their hair was unnaturally pale for their skin, not just the washed out look of summer hair, but something that made her think their parents had been different ethnicities and the mix was a little odd on their elfish faces. She was afraid for the little ones. Different was not good. Different was not accepted. On South Water Street, simply living there was enough of a mark against a body without being different as well.

* * *

"Granny," Tony asked in his high, young voice as he stood on tiptoes to lean against the counter. "Can Tia have some juice?"

 _"Please_ may Tia have some juice," Nellie admonished gently.

Tia was curled up on the floor beside her brother and mouthed what looked like 'please' as Tony patiently repeated, "Please may Tia have some juice?"

He was a good boy, a good brother, even if Nellie often wondered how he always knew what his sister was thinking.

* * *

Nellie couldn't afford tutors or anything better than a public school, but Tia was a special child and though she kept mouthing words and learning rapidly, Nellie knew that Tia would never talk and needed a way to communicate.

"You see this case, Tia?"

Tia looked at her with those solemn wide eyes, a blue so dark it felt like you could look forever and get lost in them. Tia was still small, not even five years old from what Nellie could tell, and she already had so much against her, it almost broke Nellie's heart.

But Nellie held up the star box in her gnarled old hands. It had been with the two children when they were barely bigger than babies and turned up at her door. "This is yours, Tia. It's always been with you. I'm going to put paper in here and pencils so you can write out the things you want to say. That means I'm going to have to teach you how to write."

Tony perked up with interest as the conversation went on. He came over, standing on tiptoes to look over the table. "Can I learn too, Granny?"

"Yes, you may." She should correct his grammar, remind him to say please, but she let it slide this time and helped him scramble up on the chair beside Tia.

Brother and sister looked at each other, a world of conversations in their eyes, then turned back to Nellie, bright-eyed and eager.

She wished she were younger, less poor, and better able to protect them. But she had this: she could give them words.

* * *

Every school year, Nellie would put on her best dress and go to speak to Tia's teachers before they met her and explain about the box.

"She needs it to talk to anyone and write down her responses to your questions. She won't pass notes. If there's no talking allowed, just tell her to put in her bag and she will. She's a good girl, Tia. She's obedient."

Teachers always began dubious and ended up agreeing.

Of course, she had to go home and make sure Tia understood when it was and was not okay to write down questions to her brother.

"If you don't ask the teacher instead, they'll think you're passing notes and take it away."

"It's not fair, Granny," Tony would protest.

Nellie kissed the top of his and Tia's heads. "It's the world we live in. Promise me, Tia."

And Tia nodded solemnly back.

* * *

"Ah, dear, thank you," Nellie said with a smile as Tia helped her off her feet and into a comfortable chair. "Back so soon?"

"Yes, Granny," Tony's voice came from around the corner.

School must have been let out early. Tia was dropping her bookbag onto the table and heading into the kitchen to make something to eat out of whatever fixings were left. Tony's footsteps moved toward his room but didn't come back out.

Nellie was getting up there in years, but she wasn't stupid, and she'd seen her fair share of boys who had gotten into scrapes. She looked at Tia sharply. "Did Tony have a fight?"

Tia looked a little caught out, not having expected the direct question. She sighed, then nodded mutely.

"That boy," Nellie muttered to herself. But what could she do for him? "Did he lose?" she asked, worried what would happen to him in this neighborhood, on this street, if he had.

Tia's expression was a study in frustration of conflicting kinds. Nellie couldn't read it for the life of her. But Tia shook her head. Tony hadn't lost.

Well. That was something.

* * *

"Be careful, Tony," Nellie warned him, her own late husband in her mind and all the times he'd come home with bruised knuckles and worry dark under his eyes. "Don't fight if you don't have to, but don't let them beat you down."

"Yes, Granny."

She pressed the meat gently to his eye and heard Tony's deep sigh.

"I wish I didn't have to, Granny." He looked at her with that deep sorrow in his visible eye, and she patted his knee gently.

"I know, Tony. But you're the man of the house. Take care of your sister. You'll be all right."

* * *

She always wondered if she taught them enough. She took Tia aside and taught her how to run a household, keep a budget, make a dollar stretch at the grocer. She encouraged Tony's growing tendency to get small jobs wherever he could, and they gathered together as a family to allocate the monies to what clothes and school books and food they could afford.

"You're good grandchildren. Like my own," she said, patting their hands.

Tia slid out of her chair at the table and wrapped her arms around Nellie's thin shoulders in a warm hug and kissed the sallow cheek. Tony wrapped his hand around Nellie's and held on tight.

"We love you, Granny," he said, and something in his expression and the way his eyes darted toward Tia before returning to Nellie's face told her that Tia was saying the same thing.

Tia scrawled out a line in her pretty handwriting. "You'll always be with us?" She looked anxiously into Nellie's face.

Nellie felt a twisting pang and wished she could answer differently. "No one lives forever, child. But you'll have your brother, and he'll have you."

Tony's face looked grim. He had settled into his role though. He was protector and helper and strong enough for whatever faced them. Tia would always be there for him too. She knew how to make a house a home and keep them going with the things they would need. She had good sense. These, her children, no matter they weren't born on South Water Street. They were hers.

"I love you too, children," she said softly. "Like my own."


End file.
